11. GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AS A RESEARCH METHOD 53
11.1 UAIZ on the Ground 53
This research incorporates a GIS-‐based assessment of private properties that exemplify potential asset for urban agriculture in San Francisco. Nevertheless, the main issue the research aims to showcase is how data analysis can be an effective methodology towards a more realistic policymaking process. Given that San Francisco is experiencing enormous land use tension between local needs, community expectations, and what is achievable on the ground, it is more likely that only a limited number of vacant properties would meet the
eligibility requirement whose owners would still have personal interest to invest in urban agriculture. Additionally, as the law sunsets in 2019, it is thus expected that only a small number of property owners will apply for this program in the coming years during which this window of opportunity is open. However, examining how would the UAIZ play out and how this law might -‐ or not -‐ be an effective tool to address community needs in San
Francisco is a fundamental part of this section of the research. Thus, the methodological strength of this research lies in the visualization of the UAIZ implementation on the ground. By applying GIS analysis, the expected research outcomes would provide a more explicit imaginary about whether the set-‐forth conditions by the City to qualify for UAIZ could be effective in providing access to affordable food to San Franciscans. Additionally, outcomes will highlight who the real beneficiaries of this law are and whether the law has the
potential to benefit San Francisco’s low-‐income populations, or if it is just a political response to the urban agriculture community pressure and mobilization on the local and state level.
Interestingly, not the City neither any of the supporting non-‐profit organizations conducted a vacant land analysis before advocating for or implementing the law. moreover, in March 2015, no applicants were interested in applying for UAIZ, with this shocking finding; the strength of this research method resonates in the goal to change the policy-‐making mentality to be based on data analysis prior to implementation. I thus conducted a GIS based research method to create a land inventory to identify potential urban farms in an attempt to create the dialogue between who owns the land, who is interested in farming and who can benefit.
In order to develop this land inventory, datasets were geo-‐processed on two different levels of analysis. First level will identify parcels that qualify for the UAIZ citywide. Secondly, I will examine the spatial correlation of qualified parcels to the concentration of low-‐income populations on the census tract level that could potentially benefit the most from increased new urban agriculture spaces. Hence to identify qualifying parcels, criteria set forth by the City include being a vacant property, 0.1 -‐ 3.0 acre parcel, free of any dwellings and within a zoning district that permits agricultural use; i.e. located where Small Scale Neighborhood Agriculture or Large Scale Urban Agriculture uses are as defined in the planning codes. Initially, this research aimed to identify all parameters set forth by the City and County of San Francisco for properties to qualify for UAIZ. However, post to literature review, and because this research aims to showcase the potential of using lands in producing substantial amounts of food to help solve food insecurity, I decided to narrow down the research focus to urban agriculture that is zoned in large-‐scale UA districts, which includes Commercial, Industrial and Production, Distribution and Repair (PDR). Furthermore, I also focused on larger parcels that are 2.5-‐3.00 acres in area for three main reasons:
• 1st, It is less likely to find larger parcels that are vacant in San Francisco. • 2nd, larger parcels are allowed for UA in specific zones not in all city districts,
which worth visualizing.
• 3rd, the literature is rich in identifying effectiveness of clustering smaller lots
to create larger areas of UA; however, finding many smaller adjacent lots is not applicable in the built-‐out landscape in San Francisco. Thus it was more realistic to locate larger vacant lots.
Oddly enough, the reality of limited access to data was inevitable. It was impossible to get hold of all parameters through datasets within the limited resources, timeframe and scope of this research. Thus this limitation of access to data was an opportunity that ties to the originality of this research and how it connects to other research methods, such as the literature review. In a longer time span of research, categories can include parcels that are parcels between. Nevertheless, the main issue the research aims to showcase is how data analysis can be an effective methodology towards a more realistic policymaking process. It is worth mentioning that San Jose’s non-‐profit sector conducted a vacant land analysis before implementing the UAIZ48. Garden to Table, a non-‐profit in San Jose conducted a
vacant land analysis that featured 91 lands as potential urban farms to qualify for UAIZ. Although San Jose didn’t implement the law yet, however the non-‐profit sector is more progressive than San Francisco, which already implemented the law and is planning to conduct a vacant land analysis sin Summer 2015. San Jose acknowledged the importance of using data analysis to measure effectiveness of law implementation.